The racial/ethnic make-up ofthe CDU service area is 60 percent Hispanic, 35 percent African American, 2.6 percent non-Hispanic, White, and 1.6 percent Asian American. Neighboring CDU is the MLK-Multispecialty Ambulatory Care Clinic, which provides outpatient health care to Los Angeles County's poorest patients. CDU is located in the South Service Planning Area (SPA 6), which has the highest rate of poverty in Los Angeles (LA) County; neariy three-fourths (74 percent) ofthe population live below 200 percent ofthe federal poverty level (FPL). SPA 6, the area surrounding CDU, has the highest rate of uninsured residents; nearly half (47 percent) of nonelderiy adults and 28 percent of children have no health insurance. Neariy one million (965,000) PHS 398/2590 (Rev. 06/09) Page 177 Continuation Format Page Principal Invesfigators (Last, First, Middle): Norris, Keith C. / Shapiro, Marfin F. people live within a five-mile radius of CDU. Of these, 65 percent are living below 200 percent FPL and 39 percent are uninsured. This overall group manifests high-morbidity and high-mortality rates in areas recognized by NIH as priority national health concerns, manifesting substantial disparities in health status. Thus, the CDU community is principally composed of racial, ethnic, and socio-demographic populations who have been identified as understudied and underserved and who have had suboptimal participation in clinical research studies and clinical trials. The Disparities Center, formeriy Project EXPORT, partnership represents a Minority Serving Institution- Research Intensive Institution collaboration that has gained significant momentum over the past nine years of funding in performing evidenced-based, health disparities research; providing mentoring and training in health disparities research methodologies, including community-based training environments for postdoctoral fellows and junior faculty; and building community capacity for community-based participatory research (CBPR) and community-partnered participatory research (CPPR). The co-directors, constituting the leadership ofthe Administrative Core, have in large measure enabled this progress through their own extensive, significantly grounded experience and expertise in community engagement. In core duties and responsibilities, they have in unison set the high standards of ethical conduct of CBPR/CPPR and fostered an environment that is conducive to investigator collegiality and productivity in disparities and health care equity research and training.